Michael E. Lipschutz

Antarctic Journal Review 1994

In the past year, tantalizing glimpses have been received of a number of bodies in the inner Solar System. Two S-class minor planets (asteroids), 951 Gaspra and 243 Ida, were imaged by the Galileo spacecraft-the latter body was the first minor planet discovered to possess a moon-and a third, 1620 Geographos (another S-class, Apollo asteroid), will be imaged later in 1994 by the Clementine spacecraft. These data, however, constitute mere glances: our detailed knowledge of asteroids comes only from studies of their fragments that fall to Earth as meteorites.